Supreme Court Rules for Insurers
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that insurance companies can’t be held liable for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act without a showing they had a reckless disregard of their duties to customers.
The ruling found that neither Geico General Insurance Co. nor Safeco Corp. were liable under the reckless disregard standard, according to Associated Press.
At issue was whether the companies could be liable for failing to notify customers when they are charged more because of their credit ratings, Reuters reports.
A company must be more than “merely careless” to be held liable under the law, Justice David H. Souter wrote.
All nine justices joined in the result of the widely splintered decision, SCOTUSblog reports.
The court ruled in the consolidated cases Safeco Insurance v. Burr, No, 06-84, and Geico v. Edo, No. 06-100 (PDF).
